Virtual reality (VR) technology has significantly improved over the past decade, and the more I investigate it, the more I believe that the future of VR technology holds great promise and will revolutionise several key industries.
With that in mind, although VR, AR (augmented reality) and MR (mixed reality) have been hailed by many as the next digital frontier, mass adoption has been slow and is taking much longer than first anticipated.
In other words, the technology isn’t as far along or as mainstream as many experts thought it would be by now.
I’ve found many enthusiastic fans of VR technology like myself who remain optimistic and feel that we are on the cusp of something big – an exciting new future where this innovative technology will dramatically change how we work and play.
I also firmly believe that VR and its many useful applications will allow us to explore the physical world around us and the digital realm in exciting new ways that are currently unimaginable.
It seems to me that it will eventually shape how we interact and communicate with each other and our favourite digital content.
Here is a closer look at whether VR has yet to be fully realised and utilised, and if not, how much longer might that take? Let’s dive straight in to find out.
What exactly is VR?
The easiest way for me to describe virtual reality for those of you who still aren’t too familiar with it is that it is a technology that enables humans to experience a digital, computer-generated realm beyond our physical world.
We can access these environments using highly sophisticated wearable headsets, such as the Meta Quest Pro or Apple Vision Pro – two of the world’s most technologically advanced VR devices.
When viewing the digital realm from a VR headset, the computer-generated digital environments the user is presented with make them feel as though they are physically present in that simulated world.
You can explore these worlds in a completely unique way, either alone, with friends and family or with anyone else who is also immersed in that environment, and your physical body is represented in that environment as a computer-generated avatar.
When most people think of VR, they often think of VR roller coasters or metaverses like Roblox and Minecraft.
However, VR and several other ground-breaking new technologies, such as artificial intelligence (AI), generative AI, and machine learning, are helping to make VR more mainstream and revolutionise many other key industries, some of which include the following:
- Healthcare
- Fitness and wellbeing
- Education
- Automotive
- Tourism
- Retail
- Agriculture
- Sports
- Architecture and interior design
- HR and recruitment
- Entertainment
- Law enforcement
- Digital marketing
How will VR technology shape the iGaming industry?
I am excited to see how VR will shape my favourite websites, which I frequently visit to play feature-rich online fruit machines and state-of-the-art live dealer titles from award-winning software providers, and how I will be able to interact with them in the future.
If all of the websites currently featured on the Johnslots (https://www.johnslots.com/en/) website, such as Retro Sweets, Dwarf & Dragon and Live Busters Dream Drop for example, begin to realise the benefits of VR and those operators start utilising this technology, I think it would make them even more appealing.
The only content I’ve found like this, where I can walk around the tables and sit down to play a few hands of poker or pull the lever on a virtual fruit machine and have a few spins within a digitally generated environment, is on a handful of free-to-play websites.
For example, you can only play VR fruit machines, blackjack, roulette, and poker using fun chips via digital entertainment apps like Vegas Infinite, Blackjack Bailey VR, and Social Club VR, which aren’t as fun as the real thing.
It’s not yet possible to play progressive jackpot fruitys or Megaways fruitys in a computer-generated environment using real money on any fully licensed and regulated websites. Although this service is currently unavailable, I don’t think it is too far away.
I’m hoping that one day, I can fully immerse myself in a digital environment to play my favourite titles in the real money mode using my Meta Quest Pro headset for a more immersive experience.
For the time being, I will have to stick to playing them in my web browser using my smartphone or desktop computer.
A look at some of the main benefits of VR
The main benefits that VR technology will bring to this particular industry are the following:
- VR can offer a far more immersive user experience
- VR can also elevate user engagement and make the experience more social and interactive
- VR environments are constantly getting better and will continue to be unmatched in their realism and depth
- VR worlds are secure with advanced encryption and biometric authentication measures
Virtual reality offers huge potential to take many industries to extraordinary new levels, but exactly when VR technology will be fully realised could still be many years away.
I think that a great deal more collaboration between operators and software providers is needed to make VR more mainstream.
Final thoughts
Over the coming years, leading VR companies will continue improving technology and pushing the boundaries of what is possible.
Therefore, I’m confident that it won’t be too long before the benefits and applications of VR are truly realised. It will gradually start becoming more mainstream as the numerous challenges that this technology faces are overcome.
It isn’t a matter of ‘if’ VR will be fully realised and utilised, but ‘when.’ I believe we are on the threshold of the next major breakthrough, and the mass global adoption of this unique and unparalleled technology is only a matter of time away.
